20 February 2009

A Parents Group on Facebook

I was thinking about changing the "what this blog is about statement" to reflect more what it has become, which is a blog about old buildings, urbanism, and stuff like that. My original intention here was to organize get-togethers for downtown families. But that never really happened, and I think that kind of thing would maybe work better on Facebook anyway.

So I was thinking about starting a group on Facebook for downtown Cincinnati parents. After spending some time on Facebook, my only hesitation with this is that I don't think their "groups" function works so good. Maybe it works great, and the fault is with me, but it seems like it is better to just invent a person named Mr Downtown Parents or Mr Citykin or even use my real name and then make friends, and update the status often. Mostly what I get from Facebook are the status updates. Groups don't have status updates. Am I misunderstanding how this works? The other option is to start a Citykin fan page. But that even seems less connective. Anyone have any ideas on this?

One direction would be that the Facebook group could be much smaller than the blog readership, and would mostly include families in the basin and surrounding hills who want to share info on things to do and plan meet-ups. This would need to be somewhat collaborative. If I am the sole organizer, it won't go far.

Either way, this blog would remain as is.

6 comments:

Beach said...

Facebook groups are largely ignored. At least by me.

CityKin said...

Seems like it. I'm thinking they aren't worth the effort.

Anonymous said...

Have you considered a yahoo group?

Jim Uber said...

I use a facebook group to create events and then invite all members to them. It is easy to do, and as far as I know, all the members will see the invite.

Don't know if you can do this from a fan page?

CityKin said...

I can't decide...

Anonymous said...

Mike,

I remember, upon our move to downtown Covington, doing an online search for a play group for downtown/river city families. This is precisely how I stumbled upon your blog. It isn't exactly what I was looking for, but I enjoy reading it very much and have become a regular visitor.

I belong to a play group based in Northern Kentucky. Its memebers are almost exclusively from Burlington, Florence, Union, and the like, and planned outings hover around those areas. I like the group very much, and it was a real benefit to me during my stint as a stay-at-home mom. However, as my children grow, the less I feel I have in common with these parents. Our children do not attend the same schools/preschools, do not play on the same soccer teams or attend the same dance class studios - largely due to location. I would love to take part in another group more dedicated to raising children in the city, and involving city kid meetups in/near the city center. I you decide to move forward with this, please let me know how I can help.

How many families do you think would join?